The 2004 Red Table Wine is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It was aged for 27 months in French (60%) and American (40%) oak, 100% new. Purple-colored, the expressive bouquet reveals pain grille, pencil lead, mineral, black currant, and blackberry. The wine glides across the palate smoothly and the flavors are savory. There is enough tannin to support 4-6 years of evolution but the finish is slightly muted and compressed. The wine’s balance suggests that a few years of cellaring should round it out and it should continue to provide pleasure through 2025.Col Solare is a partnership between Tuscany’s Marchesi Piero Antinori and Chateau Ste-Michelle which started in 1995. Curiously, the one wine produced uses only traditional Bordeaux grapes. The winery moved into a splendid new winery in Benton City (one hour west of Walla Walla) near Red Mountain in time for the 2006 crush and it now appears to be fully completed. Current production is 4000 cases but the winery has the capacity to handle 18,000 cases. In 2007 Col Solare planted a 28 acre vineyard.Tel. (509) 588-6806; www.colsolare.com

Tasted right after bottling, this new release from the high-profile Ste. Michelle/Antinori Red Mountain project may be the finest Col Solare to date. The blend is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, and a splash each of Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot. Half is Horse Heaven Hills fruit, one quarter Cold Creek and one quarter Wahluke Slope. This is a chewy, muscular wine, dense with plummy fruit, and layered with flavors of earth, soy and black tea. There is a hint of baked, pruney flavor that is restrained enough to add interest rather than detract. ——P.G.(8/1/2007)—— 92